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The other end of an intense but incredibly rewarding week of jazz workshopping has been reached. It's Monday, and I'm into my second day of - gasp - VACATION here in Prague. Have yet to sort through 8 gigs worth of pics from the workshop and will post a small selection here at a later date. After a very successful singers' concert on Friday night (with me feeling proud as a mother hen) the last day of workshop went by very quickly, and on Saturday night, while the final student concert was happening at Jazz Dock, I had my own full show at another jazz club here, U Stari Panj. I was incredibly weary and tired, but music has the ability to pick me up and restore me. We played to a sold out room (!!!) and had an absolutely fabulous time! Shout-out to Frank, the owner, for running a great club and being an incredibly kind person. By 1am we were done with our gig and went back to Jazz Dock to the post workshop jam session. They were seriously rocking the stage when we walked in, with some tight funk music and a nice horn section. One thing lead to another, drinks were had, music was played, songs were sung, and at sunrise I found myself onstage, singing "Route 66". Walking home with my husband in the very early morning was sweet, and we decided to go straight to breakfast at our hotel (6:30) before going to bed.

Thank you to Magda, Kuba, Petr, Klara, Veronika, Jarda and all who have worked hard to make this workshop a success. Also thank you to Aga and Hanka, my fabulous vocal teacher colleages, and, finally, the students! You were great, dove right in with us into a superintense ride of exchanging ideas, learning and creating. I had a fabulous time!

Sorry cats, I have not been a good girl in terms of blogging regularly. Life caught up with me and I was swept up in preparations for my trip to Europe and finishing a track I was working on. So now I'm in Prague and feel all sorts of guilty for not being on top of this thing, but here it is. I'm up to my eyeballs in teaching at the Jazz Workshop in Prague, which is going famously. I even got a cool T-shirt that I might actually wear. Maybe tomorrow??? Prague is the postcard city it has been for the last couple of years, I'm in a lovely hotel (after a rather stinky night in a different room I reside now in a completely odor-free environment) and having a complete ball with my students. It's great to be able to give impulses, ideas, prod them in a certain direction, and generally help them get a better understanding of their instrument and chosen style of music. Hopefully there will be some pictures along the way which I will post accordingly, maybe with my next blog! But now I must be off to Jazz Dock where an award-winning young band called "The Three Cheeses" (well ok quattro formaggi) is performing tonight. Will post again soon! In the meantime loads of good vibes from the Vlatva River!